Yes, TIFs can be used for job training, according to the City of Chicago’s new movie. The “Chicago Reader’s” Ben Joravsky critiques the City of Chicago’s “movie” on YouTube, entitled “What’s a TIF?” Enjoy all the fun here: The mayor makes a TIF movie. The Oscar goes to the guy at 35 seconds, “nobody knows…
Category: TIF
The FY2011 Central Area TIF Report
…can be found here (It’s a 64-page PDF so give it a minute to load). As an incorrigible repeat offender I could not stop myself from submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the following information: 1. The breakdown of the transfers so we can tell how much is going to the…
Village of Alorton, a Federal Investigation…and TIF
Alorton is an Illinois village near East St. Louis of about 3,000 people, a median household income that is roughly the same as DeKalb’s per capita income and a median home value of $47,000. Its government is being investigated by the feds for “systemic corruption.” Some village officials have been indicted. The mayor hasn’t been…
ShoDeen Doing Things in Wrong Order
Before ShoDeen is given a nod for housing and commercial development on DeKalb’s northwest side, the company should tear down the homes it bought downtown and boarded up as (IMO) any local developer would have been made to do long ago. (Or were the comments about using the homes to prove “blight” for the formation…
Find Illinois TIF Annual Reports Online
The State of Illinois Comptroller’s Office has begun posting annual Tax Increment Financing (TIF) reports from FY2010 on. Go here and click on “View Submitted TIF Reports.” You’ll find the City of DeKalb’s FY2010 report there so far. FY2011 should be along soon.
Another Way to Abuse TIF
Greg Hinz of Crains/Chicago Business.com has summarized the Chicago Inspector General’s investigation into a Daley administration practice requiring TIF recipients to donate some of the money to specific not-for-profits, most often one run by Mrs. Daley called After School Matters. Of the 27 grant agreements signed between 1985 and 2009 that directed cash contributions to…
City is Advertising a Lawn Care Company on Public Property
Here is the southwest corner of Route 38 and Seventh Street, a high-traffic area where the city bought up Ralph’s place and demolished it with TIF money in the name of economic development. I’ll bet we’ve spent more than $150,000 on this property and all we’ve got to show for it is an overgrown, overpriced…
Our Newest Boondoggle
You thought they learned their lesson with the skating rink? Hah!
TIF Lawyer Convicted of Theft
An attorney who worked primarily on Tax Increment Financing (TIF) related issues for Calumet Park was sentenced in Cook County to six years in prison for overbilling the village for several years. A state’s attorney’s investigation of [attorney Mark] McCombs was triggered in 2010 after Community High School District 218 Superintendent John Byrne started questioning…
More Central TIF Expenditure Info
In “Our View: Re:New’s [sic] work is just beginning,” the Daily Chronicle appears to be under the impression that all the downtown work done since 2008 has cost $10.8 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars. Is this so? No. We started with land acquisition, architectural improvements, railway wayside horns, a skating rink, a pocket…